The Beginnings of the Swarm
by DreamingAuthor
Summary: The end of one world, and the beginning of the next. Earth has been lost, the Protoss were ruthless and the humans couldn't fight back. Those that managed to escape fled. But one was special, she stumbled across a power great enough to fight back. Full summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone. This is my first fan fiction story, all comments and help is appreciated. This story will be one of Zerg origins. I got my idea from reading "The Zerg Swarm" But it will be almost nothing like that. I will be starting everything from the beginning. A person who has never heard of the Zerg before. Meaning she will have to find out everything and evolve on her own. I will post as I work on the story and don't know how long the chapters will be nor when they will be posted. Anyway, read and enjoy!

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The world of Earth wasn't what it once was, now covered in the ruins of civilizations past, filled with crumbling roads and buildings, except for one spot. That was the location of the alien base that had taken over and destroyed everything that was dear. The aliens, who called themselves the protoss, were hostile. Yes very hostile. They came and wiped out the people of earth without mercy. The only survivors were the people who were able to run away and hide in the wilderness.

She had been one of those survivors. Living in one of the outlying towns Rachel and her family had the warning to get away when things started going from bad to worse. The armies of earth were crushed, what was left was sent off world, but the protoss, happy with their win, let them go. Rachel side and prayed each day that they would come back, stronger than ever and destroy the aliens that had taken over her world, though she knew it was just helpless dreaming, but what else was left?

Suddenly she saw one of the trees start moving, and it wasn't just the wind either.

"Mom!" She shouted "There's something moving down there." She said, whimpering with fear. How she loathed this feeling, being weak and helpless, not able to fight back, stuck at the mercy of the elements and the aliens that had taken away her world.

Her parents walked out of the cave they were staying in, she looked up at them and took in their features, happy that she at least had someone to be there for her. Her mom was a little under 5 and a half feet tall, with tangled long brown hair and pale blue eyes. You could tell she was once pretty, but with the way they had been living the past year, she had dirt smudged on her face and tears in the clothes that she wore, shoving off a body that was too thing from lack of food.

She looked to her dad next, He was tall, over 6 feet. He has short red hair and brown eyes that could see into her soul. He had broad shoulders and the remnants of muscles that showed that he used to be lean. But again the days hadn't been kind to the man, he was too thin, and he looked frail, trying to make sure her mom and herself had enough to eat often left him with too little.

She finally looked down at her own frail body. Her hair was a soft red like Her fathers, but She had my mothers blue eyes. She would probably be considered attractive anywhere else, but now there was no one left to look at her that way. Her clothes were dirty and she could only imagine what the rest of herself looked like.

She looked back down at the forest as the moving trees started getting closer. She got up from my spot and got farther away from the edge. A single alien came out of the forest, making her whimper and back up, dashing into the cave and into the small hiding spot in the back, not visible from the outside and covered with rocks.

She then played the waiting game, waiting for the all clear from her parents, saying that this one like the rest had turned back, had ran off. They never came this far out at first, content with just staying around their main base. She could only guess that they had decided to start branching out.

She looked around the cave, or what little she could see of it. It had changed slightly, signs of fire and life were littered around. She had come to think of the place as home, it was all she had anymore.

"What is taking so long" She whispered, taking the chance to peek out of the outcropping. The first thing she noticed was that her parents were gone. She started to panic, and then she heard the screams. She wanted to run to them, to dash out and help, but knew that if she tried she would just die as well.

After a few seconds they stopped, just as suddenly as they started, and Rachel knew that she was alone. She broke down into tears, curling into herself as she cried silently, for the life she had lost, for her parents, for the cruel fate that was the world.

She didn't know how long she cried for, sobbing into her hands as she just waited for what she thought would be the end of her life. Only it never came. She finally stopped, pangs of hunger and thirst wracking through her body, and a need to use the bathroom. She got up and peeked out, seeing that night had fallen, signaling that she had been crying for a few hours. She slowly crawled out of her hideyhole and felt as if she had forgotten how to walk, she felt so wobbly and had trouble keeping her balance.

She sighed and took her first hesitant step forward, knowing that she had to see this with her own eyes. She moved, slowly step after step, until she was standing outside of the cave. Nothing looked any different. The dark forest still stretched on and on, the mountains were high and safe. She looked side to side, until she found it. Blood.

She made her way down the slope, and found the bodies. She let out a sob but was unable to cry. They looked like they had died painlessly, just two holes, one in each. She dropped to her knees and held the bodies, not caring about the blood that was smearing itself over her clothes. She turned to face the mountains, knowing that she couldn't stay any longer. She didn't know where she'd go, just that she wouldn't be staying here.

She made her way into the cave and grabbed what little food and water she had left, before heading out deeper into the mountains. She didn't know how long she walked into the night before she had to stop. She found a place that hid her from the rest of the world before she climbed into it and slept, sleeping through most of the day.

She continued like this for 2 more nights, not moving unless under the cover of darkness, hoping beyond hope that she didn't run into the creatures that habited the world of the night. On the third night she reached the other side of the mountain, out of food and running low on water. She looked at the expanse of forest in front of her and sighed, resigned in her fate.

She made her way through the trees, using up the last of her water as she collapsed near a stream in the forest. Her mind told her to keep going, that she could last a little longer. But that part was being beat down slowly, replaced by a new feeling, a feeling of safety. She looked around and heard something calling to her. She reached down and looked into the water, reaching down to take a sip. It didn't quite taste like water, but before she could think about it, she started getting sleepy. She curled up into a ball on the side of the bank before drifting off to a dreamless sleep. The first one she had had for a while.

When she awoke the next morning, everything was different. The world looked brighter, and she had felt better than she could ever remember except for one small thing, a pang of loneliness so strong, she had never felt anything like it before. She looked around and decided to move again, not knowing just how much her life had changed.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello everyone! Here we have the second chapter. Still a little slow at this point, but that's to be expected with this kind of story I guess. It will pick up soon and we will get to see our first Zerg creatures. This will be a true beginnings and not everything will appear as you think it should at first. Anyway that's all for now!

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Taking her time, Rachel looked around the forest. She hadn't seen it in the daylight yet and it looked much better. She could hear birds singing, see the leaves rustling with the soft breeze. There were small flowers bursting off of trees and bushes, and it looked beautiful. The trees weren't very dense, and she could easily see the sky above her. As she was exploring, she realized that she didn't feel as hungry or as thirsty as she thought she would. She was also making good time, though she had no destination in mind.

After a couple hours of walking, she stumbled across the one thing she didn't want to at this point. A wolf was sitting in a small clearing, licking itself clean. Rachel started panicking slightly, knowing that there would be more around somewhere. She tried to take a detour around the clearing, to avoid the wolf before she heard a rustling around her. She turned only to come face to face with another wolf.

Rachel felt the fight leave her, knowing that she could never fight off one, let alone the pack that was sure to follow. Just as she was about to give up and give her life away, a fire ignited inside of her. 'No! I won't give up without a fight!' She thought to herself.

She got into a sloppy stance, facing the wolf in front of her, before hearing rustling as 3 more joined her. It was less than she thought would come, but more than would be required to kill her. The rest of the pack seemed to be the signal to the first wolf, because it attacked nearly as soon as the rest showed up.

Rachel ducked beneath the wolf, lashing out above her to hit it in the side, but before she could even move another darted in and raked their claws across her leg. She screamed and fell to the floor, as pain seared up through her body. She gripped her leg and felt the blood running down her fingers. She looked up and was slightly surprised. There were still only 3 wolfs. She looked over at the 4th and saw it laying on the ground in pain.

Before she could even register the fact that she had been the one to do that, another wolf dashed at her. She lashed out with a kick, hitting it in the face, sending it shooting away. This time she did have time to gasp in surprise.

"This shouldn't be possible" She whispered, pulling her hand away. The rest of the wolves were looking at her suspiciously, backing away slowly as the first two joined them. She got up, wincing slightly as she leaned against a tree. 'At least I'm getting numb to the pain' She thought, knowing that her blood would probably draw even more creatures that would try and kill her. 'But… what was with?' She thought, surprised that she had had the strength to fight off the wolves. She knew it shouldn't, couldn't be possible. Yet it was.

She slowly started limping off, the pain getting less and less. She sighed in relief as she was able to walk fully again, finally used to the pain on her leg. Her mind kept going back to the fight as she walked, wondering where that strength came from. 'How is that possible?' She thought in her mind. Suddenly her instincts went off, warning her that danger was nearby. She stopped and looked around, wondering what was coming, and how she knew it.

Suddenly another wolf jumped out at her, she couldn't tell if it was from the same pack, or another one that came after the scent of blood. A little more confident than the few minutes before, she ducked and moved out of the way of the wolf's claws, before lashing out and slamming her fist into the side of its head. She looked down at its unconscious form, and that same instinct in her was going off again. But it was saying something else this time. It was calling for death.

She blinked and backed away a little, the thought of killing the wolf seemed to repulse a small part of her mind, but another part, that was growing slowly, was telling her to kill it. 'We need food' it seemed to whisper, 'It attacked you first, you are no stranger to death' She looked down at the wolf , the part of her brain that was telling her not to kill it was growing smaller.

She looked around and then down at the wolf, before reaching down and grabbing its neck. She gripped it as hard as she could, trying to choke it. She didn't realize that she had crushed its windpipe nearly immediately. She waited a while, wanting ot make sure it was dead before pulling away. She thought she should be disgusted, that she should feel worse for killing the animal. But for some reason, she didn't.

She didn't know what to do with it out, knowing that she should bring it with her for food, but not having away to cut it up. She was at a lost. She looked around, nothing but wood and leaves as far as she could see. She thought back to the past few minutes, the strength that she had, before reaching down and trying to pick it up. It was heavy, as she was suspecting, but she could lift it. She was astonished, "This isn't possible." She whispered, looking around and then at the creature she was holding with both hands. Not knowing what to think anymore, she started walking again, deciding she needed to find a place that she could call home.

She walked for about an hour, her muscles finally starting to burn from the effort of carrying the wolf for so long, yet that small little voice that had been in her head since she woke up didn't want to stop. It was looking for something. She took her time, looking at the flowers, smiling at the pretty sight, before she noticed that they were getting lighter, and farther apart. She looked ahead and saw a gap in the trees. "I guess this is the end of the forest." She whispered, breaking through the line of trees.

It was an expansive clearing, nearly empty except the few trees poking up out of the ground. The ground was full of large tall plants and shorter grass. The small voice decided that this was a place to settle down. She however didn't agree. There was no place to hide, nothing ot keep her safe from the elements. She walked a little while into the grasslands, before putting the wolf down. That little voice was pushing at her again, nagging her, but she didn't know what it wanted.

She sat down next to it and looked around. "I need a home" She whispered, and then something happened. She felt like something was being pulled out of her, like she was losing her very life and soul, before it stopped, leaving her gasping and panting. She felt ready to pass out, slowly laying on the ground and curling up, before drifting off to sleep, not realizing that just a few feet away, a cocoon wrapped in some fleshy substance was growing.

Rachel's eyes snapped open. She looked around and saw the sun was high in the sky, making her eyes widen "Did I sleep through the night?" She asked herself, looking around, wondering just how long she had been out. As she was looking, her eyes caught onto something, a cocoon of flesh that was protruding out of the ground. She wanted to back away, look away in disgust, but that voice in the back of her mind wouldn't let her, so she walked closer.

She reached out and put her hand on it, feeling some kind of connection with the strange shape. She looked a little closer at it. It was slimy, and pink with what looked like veins throughout the body. There was a connection to it, feeling like it was a part of her. She pulled away and continued to let it grow, going back to the dog that she had brought with her from the forest. A hunger pang ran through her body, as she looked down at the meat she brought with her.

"How am I going to eat this?" She whispered and reached out, poking it and sighing, "I don't even have a way to cook it" She complained with a pout on her lips. She made her way back into the forest, intent on looking for something to eat until she found a way to cook her meat, or find out why that voice in the back of her head was so adamant that she keep it.

A couple of days of picking food from the trees and drinking out of a stream running through the forest later and she felt it. The cocoon was calling to her. She walked back into the clearing, looking at the huge bulge. It had grown a lot over the past few days. It was easily the size of a 2 story house at this point, and she could see something inside of it.

Seconds later, the cocoon broke, and the strangest thing she had ever seen was now sitting in front of her. At first glance it looked like a small fleshy hill, circular and raising up to a point at the top. It had bones protruding up out of the base and 4 entrances opposite from each other.

The next thing she noticed was that the voice in the back of her head got slightly louder, and there seemed to be another presence that she could feel in her mind. She ignored that for a moment and brought her wolf carcass into entrance closest to her.

She didn't know what to be expecting, maybe something like the inside of a stomach, but not what she found. It seemed like a cave, the ground below her didn't even feel sticky. It was plain for the most part, except little pouches and holes that seemed to be along the walls, and a pit in the middle that seemed to be filled with some kind of liquid.

She followed her instinct and put the wolf carcass into the pit, where it evaporated nearly instantly. She looked down in shock, tears springing to her eyes, 'I wanted to eat' She nearly whimpered inside of her head, when she felt a small draw on her energy once again. She looked around, wondering what was happening, but nothing seemed to be changing.

Giving a sigh, she turned and walked back out, knowing that she would have to find something else to eat this time. As she got back outside, the strangest thing stopped her. There was some pink fleshy substance on the ground, and small cocoons on the side of her new home.

That little voice in the back of her mind was in her head again, telling her that her food was right in front of her. She looked down at the fleshy pink substance that was growing in all directions around her. "eat this?" She whispered to herself, not quite sure if it was safe.

She kneeled down on top of the ground and reached out, feeling the growing substance. It felt spongy, not nearly as slimy as she had first thought. She broke a piece off, barely noticing that more grew back nearly instantly. She started examining it. It looked pretty much like a slimy pink sponge, though she could not feel the slime anywhere.

Knowing that the voice hadn't led her astray so far, she leaned in and nibbled on it softly. Her eyes widened in surprise. It tasted sweet! It was one of the best things she'd ever eaten. Ignoring the other thoughts nagging at her at that point in time, she pulled off another piece and finished both quickly, feeling fuller than she had in a while.

Rachel smiled for the first time in the past few days, things seemed to be looking up, little did she know that her surprises of that day had only just begun.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello everyone! This chapter is only slightly longer than the last, but I feel as if they will get longer with each chapter until they around out to a point somewhere down the line. I wanted to push this chapter until I created the first Zerg creature, but realized that I would have been forcing it and it would have thrown off the balance and build up I have been working towards. This seemed like a good place to stop and I believe that we got plenty of information and deeper into the Zerg aspect of the story. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Oh! I also got my first reviews, thank you for that. I understand why people like them so much. It does feel good to read. I will never be one to hold chapters over my readers and demand reviews, you guys will get chapters as I right them, as seen by the 3 chapters in 3 days. I doubt that pace will continue, but as I write my chapters I will post them.

To answer the review that gave me advice, ViolatedMonkey: I completely and fully agree with you on this point. I may introduce characters down the line, but it will not be in the near future. I want the focus of this story to be on Rachel and her interactions and control of the Zerg, not with other people and romantic interests. But thank you for the advice and it's always appreciated.

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With her most basic needs taken care of, Rachel took a small breather. She sat down on the carpet of flesh covering the ground and looked around, wanting to take in her surroundings before doing anything else.

In the distance, way past the grass lands, there seemed to be another set of mountains, meaning that she was more than likely trapped in this section of valley until she could get a better view of the area around her. The grasslands were as empty as ever, trees dotting the landscape, full of lush green leaves, signifying the middle of spring was at hand. Turning back the way she came, was the forest. It still looked imposing, full of darkness and packed with trees. The fleshy carpet stretched almost to it at this point, and she had no idea how far it would stretch. Taking a deep breath she stood up once again and headed back to her new home. It was time for her to see just what it was that she was a part of.

She walked up the entrance to the building that was her home, the slope up not bothering her in the slightest as her muscles had seemed to grow even stronger with the completion of her home. She started thinking back to everything that had happened, her battle with the wolves, her bringing the body of the dead one all the way back. Was she simply just stronger?

Suddenly her mind jumped back to the fight, she had forgotten about it up until now because it hadn't been bothering her, wondering how bad it must have gotten, she slowly pulled her pants down and looked to her leg. She blinked, and then blinked again. There was nothing there

"Wha.. this can't be right." She mumbled, reaching down and touching her unblemished leg. The scratches were gone. There was no scar, no lingering pain, simply as if they were never there in the first place. "I know that it got me, and it wasn't just a shallow cut" She whispered in awe, touching her leg once again. What did it mean? Just how much had her body really changed?

She sighed, with no answers readily available there was nothing she could do about it. So putting those thoughts aside for now, she went back to the next most pressing issue. What was this presence inside of her mind? She sat down on the floor inside of her new home, and closed her eyes. She wasn't entirely sure what to do or how to do it, so she hoped that if she just followed her instincts that she would be guided.

She was not to be disappointed it seemed, it almost felt as if there was a path leading her to the new presence. She followed it, ignoring the feeling of her consciousness leaving her body, as she made her way to the presence. As soon as she was inside, her whole prospective of the world changed.

As far as she could tell, she was inside of her home, not literally with her body, for she was in that way too. But her mind was INSIDE the building. It was… alive. She was sitting inside a building that was fundamentally alive. It fed off of the flesh outside like she had done. It used the nutrients to process, something growing? She tried to concentrate, and instantly it came into focus. There were.. bugs, growing on the side of her home. It was hatching them! She focused on them a bit more, they looked like larva. Small caterpillar like creatures, only they weren't so small now that she could see them clearer. They were about half the size of the wolf she brought back with her.

Pulling away from that, she brought her focus back to the building. So this wasn't just her home, but a home for those creatures as well. It was a hatchery. She was gaining more information the longer she stayed within her home. This was its job. It hatched those larvae. The longer she stayed out of her body, the more comfortable she became with it. She felt the substance that she had eaten earlier, it seemed that the larvae would eat it as well, and that it would grow back and could sustain them forever.

She pulled out of the Hatchery for the time being. She had learned quite a bit from her little foray into her home, but she had something else that she wanted to check. She was back on the path that had led her to the Hatchery, but instead of going straight back to her body, she stayed. She looked around and called out, feeling for the voice she had been listening to. She knew now that it wasn't her conscious as she had previously thought, but a new entity like her Hatchery.

Sure enough, after waiting for a few minutes, she felt it. In her mind was another path, smaller than the last one. It didn't seem like it was trying to stay hidden, far from it in fact, just that it wasn't… developed. She moved towards it, following the new path until it ended. It was empty. She looked around, and then looked again.

'Hello?' She thought, trying her best to project her thoughts. Again nothing happened. She felt disheartened, hoping to have learned more from this visit. At that thought, something did happen. She felt the place change. Not a physical change, or one that she could directly see, but she could FEEL the change within her mind. Suddenly her head was full; information was swimming through it, pushing the capability of her brain to the limits. She could see her own body in detail, her weaknesses, her heart beat, her body temperature. She could see the Hatchery, its nutritional requirements, the amount of something called biomass that would be required to build it. As she thought that whatever the voice knew of biomass was suddenly in her head as well. She felt nauseous. It was just too much information for her to handle.

'Stop!' She thought desperately, and then information flow ceased. She breathed a sigh of relief and drew a shaky breath, in instinct as she didn't need to necessarily breathe in her mind. 'So, it follows my wishes and what I want then' She deducted, able to think clearly with the information no longer crowding her brain. What did she want to know? What didn't she want to know? She wasn't sure how to get started. The problem was that she didn't know what she didn't know.

'This is confusing.' She thought to herself, letting out a mental sigh. 'Okay, let's start with the stuff that matters right now.' She thought simply, and thought back to questions she might have had. One popped into her mind quickly and she did her best to push her thought into… whatever this was.

'What happened to the body of the wolf? Why did you want me to place it in the pool?' She thought, not as hurt anymore with the destruction of what she thought of as her meal, but the pain when it happened was still a fresh memory.

She was prepared this time, as the waves of information assaulted her brain. She took it all in and looked over it. To say she was in shock would be an understatement. 'It's like biology on steroids' Was her only thought on the subject.

To explain it at the most base principal, the larvae growing in her hatchery could evolve. They were HER larvae, and they would change into what she wanted. All she needed was DNA. What were these creatures? She had never heard of anything like this before, even back when there were actually schools!

It seemed that whatever this was, the creatures, her Hatchery, this presence hidden in her mind that held information that she could barely comprehend, she was the leader of it all. Thoughts of what that meant raced through her head, and her previous questions about her body suddenly surfaced again. She was getting better at communicating it seemed as she didn't have to try as hard to project her thoughts, nor understand and sort them as they rushed into her.

She simply asked for the information on her body. She was expecting what she found, thought it didn't lesson the shock as much as she would have figured actually finding the information. She wasn't fully human anymore. Whatever these creatures were, she was a part of them, at least partially. She had a healing factor that was faster than she could even comprehend, and with a little digging found that at this point anything she morphed would still be less than her. Her muscles had been strengthened with some substance that she had never heard of before, but it didn't seem to make them impossibly large to accomplish this so she figured it was also not of Earth, or what she knew of it.

She let out another sigh. Finding out you were no longer human was a scary experience. But the power it gave her was worth it in her opinion. In this form, she could fight. Her eyes hardened as memories flashed before her. First the news, the days of the first invasions, then the destructions of the major cities as well as the complete annihilation of the world's militaries, and finally the bodies of her parents, simply killed for existing.

'They will pay; every one of them will pay.' She thought, the part of her that told her violence was wrong, that she should find a new way, the part of her that told her not to kill the wolf, that told her to give up to the wolves and accept her fate. That small part of her was pushed aside violently.

She stumbled upon a problem, though she refused to simply give up this train of thought. She didn't know what to ask to get this information. The simple questions of 'Can we fight?' or 'How do we fight them?' Weren't raising any information. She closed her eyes, and pushed through the information she still had.

Her eyes snapped open as she thought over one of the previous facts.

'What can my larvae evolve into?' She pushed the thought to the voice, and this time she got a response. She only seemed to have one option right now, which made sense since she had only obtained one for of DNA. The creature looked like a wolf for the most part. It ran on four legs, had a small tail, and had a light smattering of fur running over its body. But it had its differences as well. Its claws seemed to be longer, and shaper, and from what she could see were made of bone. Its teeth were razor sharp, and it had the muscle strength that she figured came from being, whatever it is they were.

She looked over the creature, and admitted that while it would be a good warrior, she couldn't help but think of how easily she took care of the wolves in the forest, and knew that those Protoss would have no trouble with them. They just wouldn't do.

'Can we make them… better?' She asked the voice in her head, and this time wasn't flooded with information. But she did feel a draw on her energy once again, that she came to realize from the information she had gained was the draining of some kind of energy that her body now contained. She also had learned that she could have things created with biomass to make them quicker and make more, but she would need to find a way to produce it.

Once again asking the voice for information, she saw another building growing on the substance that she had come to see as sustenance for her creatures. It would let her evolve and change her creatures, and not just them, but her hatchery, and anything else that would come later. It was, in short, her laboratory.

Satisfied with the progress she had made, and resolute in her desire for revenge, she made the trek back to her body. She opened her eyes, as a wave of dizziness and nausea washed over her. She turned to the side and vomited, barely noticing that her Hatchery had absorbed it and taken it away.

"Apparently I'm not as used to that as I thought" She moan blearily, deciding that next time she would spend less time out of her body until she got more used to it. She got up, wobbling on unsteady legs, as she slowly made her way back outside.

As soon as she made it out, she took multiple gasps of fresh air, feeling her head clear and her body slowly come back under her own function. She figured that it had been a combination of the energy drain for her new laboratory as well as being out of her body so long on her first time that had caused the reaction.

She looked up at the sky and took notice that while it felt like she had been gone for hours, it had only been 1 at the max that she had been wandering the connections she shared with the creatures around her. Her eyes drifted to where she knew the larvae to be growing, wondering if they would take space in her mind as well, and what it would be like. They then drifted to her newly growing building. She didn't know how long it would take to finish, and she didn't want to take another trip into her mind to find out, so she decided to sit down and bask in the sun.

After resting for a couple minutes, she decided to direct her mind back to her self-imposed task. She started simple, what could she do now? Her larvae would take another hour or 2 to hatch, she didn't know how long her laboratory would take to come out of its cocoon, and until she had either of those there was not much she could do with the creatures at her command.

Next, she moved to what she did have, the world around her. With more DNA she could have more creatures to experiment with. She could combine some, create entirely new forms, but she needed to go find the DNA in order to do anything along those lines. With that thought in mind, she forced herself to her feet and made her way into the woods. If what she remembered from school was anything to go by, there would be plenty of things she could use in there.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello everyone! Chapter 4 is done! Again only slightly longer, but we have our first sightings of the Zerg! They will come into play more and more as the story goes on. Rachel is slowly growing stronger, and is learning her place in this strange little world of hers. If anyone has any kind of animals they want to see added or aspects or buildings then just tell me and I will see if I can work them in either here or later on down the line!

Next is answers to reviews!

ViolatedMonkey: Thank you! I tried to give this story my own little twist and I really wanted to look into the very beginning and have my own take on how the zerg evolved into what they were. Some of the actual creatures will make an appearance eventually but for the most part they will be adaptations of my own strains of creatures. All of your ideas are good, one was even added! Not quite as a unit, but as an aspect that will be mixed with others.

Puertorican: Thank you for the reviews ^_^ I'm glad you like the story and my idea on how to write it. I tried to do something that no one had really done before and this was what I came up with. I enjoy writing it every night.

: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you enjoy the story and hope you keep reading.

SnoopCooper: Thank you for your review and I hope you continue to like it!

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The forest was just as dark and imposing as she first remembered. She made her way deeper inside, knowing that the stuff she wanted would be deeper inside, hiding and seeking solace in the dense forest.

Rachel was on high alert with every step. She trusted the presence in her mind to keep an eye out for danger, but she was looking back and forth with each step. Partially to keep a look out for anything she would be able to use for her creatures, and partially for her own safety. She was sure that wolves weren't the worst things in this forest.

After walking for around 30 minutes, she hadn't caught sight of anything she could use. Bugs and birds flittered by, just out of reach or just plain useless to her. She refused to give up her search so easily, and kept moving about the forest, knowing she'd be able to find her way back via her connection to her Hatchery.

Deciding that she could at least take a break for now, she made her way to a stream she had stumbled across a few minutes earlier. Stripping down to nothing, she climbed in, wiping away the grime and blood that had accumulated from her journey and everything that had happened afterwards. While she was bathing, her senses went off, alerting her to danger.

Turning to her left, she saw a snake sitting on the bank of the river. It wasn't a well-known species as far as she could tell. There was no rattle, no hood, and nothing that screamed dangerous. But her senses were telling her it was indeed. She thought over the creature, and had just about given up on bringing it back with her, before an idea suddenly popped into her mind.

"Venom!" She exclaimed, "Maybe if I bring it back we can replicate it." She thought, growing excited at the new options before her. With that in mind she looked around for a stick. She knew that she had a healing factor, but she hadn't checked if it extended to foreign toxins, and she didn't want to find out the hard way!

Finding what she was looking for at the other end of the water, she grabbed the stick and brought it with her. She looked at the snake for a few minutes, trying to decide the best way to go about this, before admonishing herself in her mind 'You want to go to war with a race of sentient beings, but you can't even fight a snake!' Her mind practically screamed at her. Finder her resolve, she walked towards it and raised the stick above her head.

It was over nearly instantly. The snake didn't have a chance against Rachel's super strength. The stick killed it nearly as soon as it landed. She pulled it away, blinking down and then looking around. "That was it?" She asked no one in particular. She just shrugged and walked back to the bank, throwing her clothes on, not bothering about the fact that she was still wet and picked the snake up with the stick.

With her prize in hand, Rachel headed back to the clearing that her Hatchery was in. It took her a little while to get back through the woods and to her home, and when she got back, she had 3 larvae crawling around the creep. She smiled, opening her mind and feeling their presence. There wasn't much, probably a testament to the fact that she didn't have many options to use them for at this point.

She walked into her Hatchery, dropping the snake into the pool in the center and watching it dissolve away. She turned around and headed right back outside, making her way to the nearest larva.

Rachel reached down and started petting the larva, wondering what they were like. She was sure that this was an alien species now, though she had no idea where they came from, or how she had come to be the one to lead and create them. She pulled away from the larva, knowing she had other things to focus on at the moment.

Her thoughts drifted back to her trip. She knew that she couldn't do anything with the venom yet, and having her larva morph into snakes, even if they were larger than normal, just wouldn't be of much use in a fight. So that required her to wait for her lab. But she was tired of being defenseless.

Making up her mind, she turned to the larva, seeing that there were more growing on the hatchery already. 'I need you to morph' She thought simply, using her connection with the larvae to show them what to morph into.

She watched in fascination as they seemed to curl up into balls while a cocoon of the flesh beneath her wrapped around each of them, leaving them laying right where they had been when she had gave the order. Taking a small journey out of her body, she found out that they would take just about an hour to evolve, which wasn't too long in her opinion. In fact if she could find a way to create more larvae and get them to hatch faster, she could create an entire army in days!

Quickly moving her mind from that thought, since that would also require the building that was currently growing just a few yards off, she focused on the next pressing issue. What to do next. She didn't want to just wait around, it made her uncomfortable, like she could be doing something more productive. She wasn't sure where those thoughts came from. She had been plenty happy to wait around before all of this. So she assumed it was one of the bi-products of becoming an alien.

Thinking of a way to keep herself busy, she decided to focus on one of the issues she had been running into the most so far, biomass. From what she could gather, and what little the voice knew of how it and the creatures around her worked, she knew that her body was imbued with a type of psychic energy when she was made the leader of these creatures. It wasn't much, but it seemed to be growing with every building and every creature that she added to her growing family.

She also knew that she could use this energy to create new buildings, to preform her experiments when her laboratory was finished, and she used it to evolve her larva. But instead of using her own energy, she could also use biomass. The problem was that she didn't know how to produce it, and her Hatchery couldn't produce it herself yet.

Assuming biomass was energy, she could probably find animals in the forest and kill them, letting the hatchery dissolve them and take their energy, but that seemed time consuming, and there had to be a better way to create it. What else had energy? She took a couple minutes to think, her eyes absently drifting to and fro as ideas flittered across her brain and were tossed out.

"Ugh. Why can't they just use the sun like plants do?" She thought miserably, before her words actually registered in her brain. "Why can't we?" She thought again, looking back towards the forest. "What if?" She questioned, and made her way to the edge.

She reached down and grabbed a leaf, pulling it off of the stem and twirled it in her fingers "Maybe I could evolve the Hatchery to photosynthesize?" She thought out loud, before shaking her head. "No, bigger." She looked down and then back to her hatchery, and down again. "Maybe our food? That would be plenty of area to absorb sun light." Her mind was racing now. She may have found an answer to one of her biggest problems!

Rachel raced around the edge of the forest, collecting flowers, branches, leaves, as many different types of plants that she could find, until she couldn't hold anything else. She made her way step by step back to her Hatchery, being careful not to drop any of it. Walking up the slope was difficult, but she managed to pull it off without dropping anything.

Standing by the edge of the pool, she stared down into it, not sure what would happen if she did drop all of this in there, but she wanted this idea to work so much! Taking a chance, she let her arms drop, as everything fell down into the pool below her. She sighed in relief as all of it seemed to dissolve, and she assumed that meant she had more DNA at her disposal.

She gave a soft smile in happiness. Everything seemed to be going well, and she was learning more and more each day. She could feel her new wolf hybrids were maturing rapidly, and were in the last few minutes of evolution. With this in mind, she turned around and headed back outside, deciding to be there when they hatched.

Making her way over to the larva she had been with right before she ordered the evolution, she sat down by it. She waited patiently the last few minutes, that voice that constantly told her to keep going seemed to be just as interested in the accumulation of her work.

She wasn't entirely sure what she was going to see. Would it break out like a new born? Would the cocoon explode when it was done? These questions and more were running around in her head as she sat there, until she felt it. It was still strange to her, how she would know things that she didn't really know, and it was hard to get used to. But this was one of those times.

The cocoon in front of her split down the middle, parting and sliding away, being absorbed back into the ground of flesh, leaving the creature there, as if it had always been there, just hiding away. She moved closer to it, reached out and running her hand over its head. It didn't react at first, thought she didn't know why, so she took the time to examine it.

It looked exactly like the pictures she saw in her mind. It walked on four legs, with a tail wagging behind it. It had fur spread simply over its body, but you could easily see the skin beneath it. She moved down to its feet. They looked like paws, like any dog would. But the claws, they were even fiercer than she had first thought. They were about 3 inches long, and sharp as razors. They would easily be able to tear chunks out of trees, let alone flesh and blood. Its teeth razor sharp, lining its mouth like the wolf did as well. Looking at them now, they may be slightly longer, but not a hugely noticeable amount.

She backed away and studied the three of them together. They all looked the same, at least to her they did. There wasn't any noticeable difference between the three of them, and she figured it would be like that with all of her creatures. Deciding to test them out, since they were what she had for now, she had them run around the Hatchery a little bit.

To say she was surprised would be an understatement. She knew that being a part of the race she seemed to be would give them some benefits, she couldn't believe just how much the boosted muscles worked. In short, they were probably the fastest creature she had ever seen move. They ran with the grace that one would expect of a majestic wolf, but its speed was unmatched.

Not able to help herself, she let her mind drift and find its way to one of her wolf morphs. She could smell everything! The air, the Hatchery, the different scents of the forest, her own body, all of it had its own unique scent. This was another thing she wasn't expecting, but was glad for.

She pulled back to her own body and told the wolf morphs to stop running. They complied instantly and went back to standing around the hatchery. It seemed that they didn't do anything other than what she ordered. She'd probably have to go into the lab when it was down and see if she could give them some form of self-consciousness, if not to all of her creatures, at least to one type to help her run her race.

Thinking back to her wolf hybrids, she knew that they would have their own uses, even without being evolved. She quickly ordered them to go explore the forest, and to alert her if they found anything that would benefit their species.

Leaving them to their task, she flexed her own muscles in a form of stretch, more out of reflex than an actual need since she hadn't felt stiff since she transformed. She wondered how much energy her body had now, and if she would ever be able to do anything else other than just boost her own strength and have a healing ability. While these were both useful abilities, she wanted to be able to fight the protoss on her own as well. Not just as a general in the background.

On her own once again, she found herself without anything to do. She had her wolves out exploring the forest, new larva waiting to hatch, and a lab slowly growing. She had to admit that it was more than she had before the day started. That reminded her just how long this day had been. She felt like she had accomplished a week's worth of tasks, but it had only been a day, less than that.

She looked up and saw the sun well on its descent towards the mountains in the west. It had to be getting late in the day, and she only had a couple of hours of day light left. She wasn't sure if she wanted to leave her only creatures to explore the forests at night on their own. But she also didn't want to have to limit her progress to only when she was awake.

Projecting her thoughts to the three wolves, she changed her orders slightly. She told them to stay out of sight, and if they saw anything interesting, follow it, but don't be seen, and to bring it up when she woke up next

With that done, she cut the current link to the patrolling creatures and hade her way to the hatchery. She wanted to make her way back to the voice that seemed to hold all the relevant information on her progress and what she could do.

She let her mind drift out of her body like she had earlier in the day, making her way back to the same spot she found the voice in. She stood there, silent once again as she pondered what she could ask it. She felt like her home was empty like there should be more buildings, more creatures. She felt as if there wasn't enough.

She already knew how to solve the creature problem, but what about buildings. She couldn't think of anything else she needed at this point. That seemed to be the best question so she asked it 'Are there any other structures I can build?' She asked.

Her mind was flooded with information, and it was more than she thought there would be. The two that stood out to her the most though, were the den that her wolves could stay in, and a defensive structure that she would need to look more in depth at. She felt bad at first. She had thought of her own needs, that she could sleep in the Hatchery, and what she could do for herself, that she didn't take into account that these creatures were depending on her to look out for their well-being too.

She made up her mind to start morphing the den, wanting to let her wolves have a place to stay so that they wouldn't be uncomfortable. From what she could see, it seemed to be a small cave that was covered inside and out with the substance that the ground outside was made out of. It seemed simple, but if it was an option she was sure there was a reason for it.

The next structure was some kind of defense. It looked fairly simple in nature. She was sure she would be able to make it better with her lab that was being built, but it was better than nothing. It wasn't exactly a structure. It was just an addition to the floor. It looked like the flesh could rise up as spikes and impale the feet of anything that tried to attack on the creep. If she could mix that with poison, or make it bigger, there would be no end to the possibilities. She had the outside of the creep nearest the forest contain these spike improvements, before letting herself fall back into her mind.

The nausea was not nearly as bad this time, and she was able to get up easily. Deciding that today had been productive enough, she lay down and made her eyes close, drifting into a sound and dreamless sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Yeah this took a while to post. I've had it done but just haven't had the time to get on here to put it up. Work, school, LCS, got kept a bit busy. But better late than never? I hope so! Next chapter is being worked on, I will try to get on and post it as soon as it's done. Anyway enjoy!

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The first thing she noticed was cool air hitting her face, a nice soft breeze that felt like heaven. It took her a couple of minutes to come back into herself, but in the end she managed to pull herself up. She looked around and realized it was dark out. She wasn't sure how she could tell, but it had just recently turned dark too.

"This is strange" she mumbled "I'd have thought I needed to sleep more." She had been busy that day after all, still being the main source of biomass for her little colony. She decided to find out if there was a reason for that and quickly dove into her mind, back to the presence that was always there. She asked her question, and got a fairly simple answer. They didn't need to sleep. Apparently the healing factor affected everything, and their brains and bodies didn't deteriorate without sleep.

She wasn't sure how to feel about this. Sure not needing sleep was nice, but she kind of enjoyed being able to sleep. It was the easiest way to relax and not think about anything going on. She sighed and dropped back into her body, barely feeling any ill effects at all this time. Two of her wolf hybrids didn't seem to be doing anything, still exploring the forest. One was calling for her attention though.

She shrugged and used her powers to jump to the mind of the creature calling her, looking through its eyes to see what it had found. She didn't see it at first, or see it much at all actually, but she knew that these creatures wouldn't have just called to her for nothing, there had to be something there.

She took control of more of its senses, and then she smelt it. She couldn't tell what the smell was, but she knew it was there, and that it was close. She moved the wolf forward a bit and saw it. It was a little lizard, but its skin was the same color as the leaves around it. She didn't quite see what was so special about it, there were green lizards all over the place after all.

But then it moved. It stepped past the leaves and one of its feet touched the branch. The color of its skin changed. It slowly morphed into the same brown as the branch it was on. Rachel quickly moved back into her body and got up, dashing out into the forest "I definitely need one of those." She whispers.

Taking almost no time at all she reached where her small pet was watching. She walked up to the branch and grabbed the lizard, chameleon she believed it was called. She would be able to have quite a bit of fun with the DNA of this little thing. She ordered all of her wolves to head back to their home, before linking her mind to the larvae that had been created while she slept. After a quick command to transform into the wolf hybrids, she went back to her mind and continued on to her hatchery.

The next couple of days were filled with much of the same thing. She used the biomass she had to create more and more of her wolves, forming a small army of about 12. She kept looking at the building she had made for her wolves, wondering why it was even an option if none of the m slept. They didn't seem interested in it at all.

Finally, the day she had been waiting for arrived. She watched in anticipation as her laboratory hatched. It wasn't as large as the hatchery, she could walk into it, move around a bit, but it didn't have a whole lot of room. Though she wouldn't complain in the slightest, Rachel was excited to see what she could do with her new found freedom.

She walked inside and felt the presence in her mind, she quickly linked herself to the laboratory and felt her mind fill with the many different options she had. She watched with fascination as all the DNA she had collected since her first wolf was sorted through, watching all the useful pieces be taken apart, reinvented, improved.

The presence that she always felt in her mind, the one that seemed to know everything, she could almost feel its happiness. It seemed to be growing stronger with all of the new information. She could see all the upgrades, and what they did for everything.

"Wow that's a lot of options." She said, as they were organized into categories. The first thing she wanted to do was increase her defense, she just didn't feel safe yet. She navigated around in her mind, quickly finding the options that she was looking for. She sent out a mental command and picked through the options.

She knew what she needed to protect against, the occasional predator from the forest, maybe a zealot if she was really unlucky, and she couldn't think of anything better than the spikes she had now. She pulled up the option for them and saw a couple of changes. The ability for them to grow larger would be helpful, they could actually really damage something that way, she also saw ones with a mix or poisons, apparently one of the many plants she had collected must have had some kind of toxin.

She shrugged and chose to do both, she felt the additions nearly immediately, and then reached out to the defenses that she set up around the forest. She chose a few of the outliers to be evolved into poison, and the ones closer to her base were changed into the larger more damaging spikes. As soon as the orders were given, she felt them disappear.

Rachel blinked and quickly fell into her body, turning around and going outside. Along the edge of her creep, she saw little bubbles forming, almost like the larvae looked when they evolved. "I suppose it shall take some time then."

It seemed like upgrading things that already existed took time, they needed to regrow into what they were needed to be. Which she supposed kind of made sense. She turned and walked back into her new lab, happy with the options it had given her.

She felt a small drain on her body as she linked back into the lab, and knew what she needed to do next. She poked around inside a bit before just asking for what she needed, 'Can I change the creep to photosynthesize and create its own biomass' The conscious of the lab started piecing together more DNA codes. She saw the DNA of the carpet they lived off of, it was slowly being picked apart, as different plants, their chloroplasts and DNA being plugged in at different spots in different ways.

She finally got an answer, one of the plants actually had a DNA that could mesh with her food. She looked over all of the changes. It seemed to give more nutrients when eaten, as well as being able to absorb sunlight and convert it into biomass. She was proud of herself, that an idea had actually worked.

It was quickly selected to be upgraded. She wasn't quite sure what it would look like, or if the entire creep would cave on itself to change. Sadly it wasn't that climatic, it just slowly started being changed. Strangely, even though it was being given chloroplasts, it wasn't changing into a green color.

She decided to pick a few more upgrades, not even thinking of looking at ways she could upgrade herself, she poked at the two things she was most interested in, the larvae, and her wolves. The upgrades for her wolves seemed straight forward to her at least, she didn't really see the need to give them the camouflage powers of the lizard, but she did give their teeth and claws the combination poison, as well as making their claws a little bit longer.

After selecting the upgrades, she saw them all start moving, curious she decided to watch. They seemed to be heading to the den she created, before they all got changed into their cocoon forms and evolved.

"Well that's what that's for then" She mumbled, going back into the lab one last time. She went into the upgrades for that hatchery, and looked specifically at the larvae. She looked at the DNA options and asked if there was a way to increase the speed that the larvae were produced, how many they could have, and how fast they changed.

The lab started plugging DNA combinations into the larvae and the hatchery, seeing how well it could change them to what Rachel wanted. It seemed to take a few minutes to run through all three, but she was fairly happy with the results. She didn't ask what DNA was used but it seemed it increased the number spawned at a time to 6, cut there evolution time by 1/4th as well as increased their production speed by a half.

She selected all of the upgrades, before stepping back out of the lab. She quickly fell to her knees and put her hands on her head, the nausea was back. She looked around and realized she must have been doing that for a couple of hours at least, and it took a toll on her still changing body.

After giving herself a few minutes, she felt well enough to get back up. It was still dark, but she seemed to know that the sun would be coming up within the next two hours. "I need another warrior" She decided, moving out into the forest shakily as she caught her breath. She wasn't too scared of anything happening while she was away, since nothing had so far. She didn't know she would pay for it soon enough.

She moved out into the forest, trying to hone her senses of smell and hearing, hoping she could find something useful. She was sure her wolves would be enough for now, but she just felt a need to expand, to grow ever larger and ever more powerful.

About 30 minutes of waiting had left her empty handed. She just couldn't seem to find anything. She was looking for another 30 minutes before something in her mind changed. She blinked, and closed her eyes, feeling for it. She had never felt anything like this before and she couldn't quite tell what it was. It almost felt like something was walking on her, and then she realized it. Not on her, on the floor of her little home.

She turned around and ran off quicker than she knew was possible, her psychic energy flooding her body and making her move very quickly. It took her about 20 minutes to reach her Hatchery, but whatever had been there was gone. She didn't know what it was, only that it walked on 2 feet, never 4.

She decided to wait a few hours before doing anything else, not knowing just how close she came to losing something. She wanted to make sure that if she wasn't there, that her hatchery had plenty of defenses. The defense spikes evolved first, and they were just as deadly as she imagined them to be. She couldn't imagine any forest animal getting past them.

The next thing to finish was her fleshy carpet. It didn't look any different, but she could feel that it was different. With the sun being out she could feel it being drawn in, as the flesh started turning the sunlight into biomass and energy, storing it insdie of itself as well as in the hatchery. The larvae were next, as she could feel the hatchery growing the next set of 6 that she really felt she needed.

The wolves were last, taking another hour after the larvae, but she could tell it was worth it. If they looked deadly before, they looked like death machines now. Their claws were longer, more menacing than she thought they would look. She couldn't see any poison, but she knew it was there, probably inside special sacs in the bones.

She had the wolves patrol the outside of the base, and left orders for the larvae to evolve into wolves as soon as they were hatched, she wouldn't give up on her goal of finding another warrior to add to the strength of her growing little army.

She spent the next few hours sneaking around the forest, looking for something that she could fight with. Yet luck seemed to be against her as nothing wanted to show itself. She gave up after another couple of hours, deciding that she would just stay with her wolf hybrids and just make as many as she could.

She made her way back to her hatchery, and looked around. She saw that her next set of wolves at evolved, leaving her with 18 of them, all patrolling around her home. This was going to be her main force it seemed. She was sure that she would find more to add later, but for now she would continue to build her her forces until she was sure that she could defend everything she needed to.

The next few days were spent growing her wolves, and adding more defenses to various places along her floor, the biomass she was storing was growing, as well as her own powers and strengths. Her hybrids numbed over a hundred now, she kept them mostly around her hatchery, wanting to make sure they were safe and that she didn't lose them, but she was growing restless.

She didn't think it was actually her, but the presence inside of her. It felt stagnant. It wanted to grow, to expand. Rachel couldn't think of any reason not to, and looked into ways to grow her floor. She went to the lab and looked over the option. She decided to upgrade a small building that would expand the floor from it, she started placing them around the outskirts of her base.

It took them a little less than a day to fully evolve. They weren't very big, about to her chest and only slightly larger round than she was, but she could feel all of the nerve fibers as they started forcing the floor to spread. She started a slow takeover of the forest, sending her wolves out in packs as well as using the floor to take over the grass and natural ground.

Her wolves had the order to kill anything they found and bring it back to the hatchery. It was going smoothly, until she actually found something that tried to fight back. She wasn't even aware of it at first, she was placing the defense spikes along different points of her floor when she felt a tug at her mind.

She followed it into the eyes of one of her hybrids, and was staring up at the face of a very angry bear. She quickly ordered her forces to bring it down, which they did with vicious quickness. The bear didn't even have a chance to move before it was hit from every side, ripped to pieces by claws and teeth. She felt the wolf she was in slowly healing from a scratch along its flank. She gave them all orders to pull its body back so they could use it. It looks like she had found her new warrior.

Everything was running smoothly, but then she felt it. That little pricky feeling like she was being walked on. Only there wasn't just one this time, there were 5 different things standing on her floor. She could feel them stop, before one of them reached down and pulled a piece off. She ordered her wolves to race back to the hatchery, making sure she had all of her defenses ready. She didn't know if it was the Protoss or not, but if they were here, they wouldn't be leaving alive.


End file.
